Cal-Saint Mary's Rugby Rivalry to Decide National Title Game Berth

Bears host Gaels Saturday in what has become the best rivalry in college rugby -- and they are just a few miles apart

The greatest rivalry in college rugby will add a chapter on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Witter Field when Cal hosts Saint Mary’s with a berth in the national championship match on the line.

“As an athlete you train and you play the sport for games like that,” Cal wing Marcus Shankland, a fifth-year student from Surrey, England, said in the video atop the story. “Five years we’ve been building to this particular game.”

In football, the rivalry is Cal-Stanford; in rugby it’s Cal-Saint Mary’s.

Let’s run down the elements of a great rivalry:

Proximity? Cal and Saint Mary's are arguably the two best rugby colleges in the country, and they are located in the East Bay just 12 miles apart. “They’re right there in our backyard,” Cal hooker Jack Manzo said.

Competitive balance? Since the start of the 2012 season, Cal and Saint Mary’s have faced each other 11 times, with Cal holding a 6-5 edge. In those 11 matches, Saint Mary’s has outscored Cal by the razor-thin margin of 287-283. Cal won this year’s regular-season match 31-24 on March 26 in Berkeley, when Cal came up with the equivalent of a goal-line stand in the final seconds.

Jack Manzo (left) and Marcus Shankland discuss the March 26 match against Saint Mary's below

“It’s never a 20-point blowout,” said Manzo, a fifth-year student from Queens, N.Y. “It’s always neck and neck, always to the last minute. I love playing these guys. It’s a great match of will.”

Significance of matchups? Cal and Saint Mary’s are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the country, respectively, and the winner Saturday will travel to Houston for the April 30 national championship game against Army, which defeated Lindenwood 19-15 Friday night in the East region semifinal.

The two teams are nearly always near the top of the national rankings when they meet. The last time the Gaels and Golden Bears faced each other in the postseason was 2019, when Cal won that national semifinal matchup 28-24 by scoring the game-winning try in extra time, the final whistle blowing as the Bears added the conversion.

Emotional peak? This will be the final home game for several Cal players, including Shankland and Manzo, who are fifth-year athletes. “For five years we’ve been building to this particular game,” Shankland said.

The 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19, and 2021 was virtually a throw-away season for Cal with practice time severely limited and games canceled regularly because of the pandemic. Saint Mary’s beat Cal 32-14 last year in one of the Gaels’ most lopsided wins over the Bears.

Manzo and Shankland talk about the difference from last year:

Things are virtually back to normal now, and the pent-up visions of glory have returned. Cal is undefeated, and the Gaels’ only loss was the defeat against Cal. And a win would give Cal a shot at its first national title since 2017.

Shankland did not play in the regular-season game against Saint Mary’s, the fifth match in a row that Shankland missed because of a hamstring injury. He returned for last weekend’s 43-26 victory over Central Washington and scored four tries, and he is looking forward to playing Saint Mary's.

Winning the regular-season game against Saint Mary’s earned Cal the home field for Saturday’s game, and playing on Witter Field’s artificial turf instead of Saint Mary’s natural grass field could be significant.

“From a technical standpoint, two different surfaces,” Shankland said. “Saint Mary’s has a much longer grass field, tends to play a little slower, and this week is going to be full of rain so the game might play out differently on that field than it would at ours.”

Generally, though, Cal players are pleased they will be playing at Witter Field.

“I am ecstatic to have this game at Cal and represent the colors at home one more time,” Manzo said. “It means everything.”

Familiarity? Longtime Saint Mary’s head coach Tim O’Brien played his college rugby at Cal under current Golden Bears head coach Jack Clark. O’Brien was the star of Cal’s 1980 and 1981 national championship squads.

Cal fullback Max Schumacher won a national championship at Sacramento’s Jesuit High School, and his co-captain on that team was Joe Marchant, who is now the Saint Mary’s captain and one of four finalists for the 2022 Rudy Scholz Award, which goes to the nation’s top college rugby player. (Cal’s Sam Golla is also a finalist for the Scholz Award.)

Fan interest? Stands at Witter Field were packed for the regular-season meeting between the two East Bay sides, and even if there is significant rainfall Saturday, a big crowd is expected.

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Cover photo by Guy Warren Photography

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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